A former Meta engineer has left the comfort of Big Tech to launch Frontdesk, an AI startup that automates business conversations at scale. The founder’s journey began in middle school, building voice apps and learning to code from YouTube tutorials. After developing Rescuer, a voice-activated emergency app in 2016, he realized code could create real-world impact. This passion led him to UC Berkeley’s M.E.T. program, where he earned dual degrees in electrical engineering, computer science, and business in just three years.
The pivotal moment came in 2023 when ChatGPT exploded onto the scene. Over a single weekend, he built one of the first prototypes connecting ChatGPT to a real phone line. The viral experiment garnered significant attention, though the technology wasn’t yet production-ready with issues around latency, reliability, and model errors. Despite receiving offers from Citadel and Meta, he chose Meta, joining a fintech team where single lines of code affected millions of transactions.
During his nearly two years at Meta, he witnessed AI momentum building throughout the company. While not working directly on AI projects, he observed models improving every few months. His viral ChatGPT phone hack evolved from a novelty into a viable business opportunity. Hundreds of businesses had reached out after his initial post, seeking solutions for missed calls and customer conversations.
In February 2025, he made the difficult decision to leave Meta’s lucrative compensation package, including salary and stock refreshers. He raised capital, relocated from California to New York City, and launched Frontdesk as founder and CEO. The company operates as a comprehensive AI operating system that engages customers across all channels, handling real-world tasks like scheduling and follow-ups.
Frontdesk’s team works in-person from a SoHo office, comprised largely of former Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta employees who similarly abandoned comfortable Big Tech positions. The founder describes his current work as remarkably similar to his middle school coding sessions—pacing and testing phone interactions—except now the technology powers millions of calls. His story exemplifies the growing trend of talented engineers leaving established tech giants to build AI-focused startups during this transformative period in artificial intelligence development.
Key Quotes
I kept thinking about all those businesses, where a missed call meant a missed customer. I knew there was demand, I knew nobody was serving them, and I knew I wanted to be the one to build it.
The founder explains his motivation for leaving Meta to start Frontdesk. This quote captures the entrepreneurial insight that drove him to abandon a comfortable position—recognizing an underserved market need in business communications that AI technology could finally address effectively.
Every few months, the models improved noticeably. My ChatGPT phone hack stopped feeling like a viral stunt and started to feel like a glimpse of the future.
This observation from his time at Meta illustrates the rapid pace of AI advancement that convinced him the technology was ready for production deployment. It marks the transition point where experimental AI projects became viable business opportunities.
The difference is that now, when it works, it works across millions of calls.
Comparing his current work to his middle school coding projects, the founder highlights the transformative scale that AI enables. This quote emphasizes how AI technology allows individual developers to create solutions that impact businesses at unprecedented scale.
Our Take
This narrative exemplifies the talent migration reshaping the AI landscape. The founder’s decision to leave Meta after just 18 months—forgoing substantial equity vesting—demonstrates the urgency entrepreneurs feel to capture AI opportunities before markets mature. His background bridging engineering and business positions him uniquely to build AI products that solve real commercial problems rather than pure technology experiments.
What’s particularly notable is Frontdesk’s focus on voice-based AI automation for traditional businesses, not just tech-savvy enterprises. This democratization of AI capabilities could fundamentally reshape customer service economics, potentially displacing human workers while enabling small businesses to compete with larger competitors on service quality. The team composition—former Big Tech engineers willing to sacrifice compensation for equity upside—suggests strong conviction that conversational AI represents a multi-billion dollar market opportunity. This story will likely be replicated hundreds of times as AI capabilities continue advancing and more engineers recognize the finite window to establish market leadership.
Why This Matters
This story captures a defining moment in the AI industry’s evolution, where top engineering talent is abandoning lucrative Big Tech careers to build specialized AI startups. The exodus from companies like Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon signals a generational shift in how AI technology is being commercialized and deployed. The founder’s journey from viral ChatGPT experiment to venture-backed startup illustrates how rapidly AI capabilities have matured from novelty to business-critical infrastructure.
Frontdesk’s focus on conversational AI for business automation addresses a massive market opportunity—the millions of customer interactions that businesses struggle to handle efficiently. This represents AI’s practical application beyond chatbots, demonstrating how large language models can integrate with traditional business systems like phone lines to deliver tangible ROI. The willingness of experienced engineers to forfeit substantial compensation packages suggests strong conviction that we’re in the early innings of an AI transformation comparable to the mobile or cloud computing revolutions. For businesses, this trend indicates that AI-native solutions will increasingly challenge incumbent software providers, while for workers, it highlights both the opportunities and disruptions AI brings to traditional customer service roles.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/quit-job-meta-build-ai-company-leaving-wasnt-easy-2026-1